Heinz Oberhummer

Heinz Oberhummer

Heinz Oberhummer (born 19 May 1941 in Bischofshofen) is an Austrian physicist and skeptic.

Biography

Heinz Oberhummer grew up in Obertauern, Austria. He studied physics at the University of Graz and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He now lives in the village of Oberwölbling in the Dunkelsteinerwald, Lower Austria. Heinz Oberhummer is married and has two children.

Research fields

Heinz Oberhummer is professor emeritus of Theoretical Physics at the Atominstitut of the Vienna University of Technology. His main research area is nucleosynthesis. He is also involved in questions concerning the fine-tuning of the Universe. Oberhummer, Csótó und Schlattl were able to derive quantifiable results concerning the fine-tuning of the Universe by investigating the creation of carbon and oxygen in the triple-alpha process in red giants. ^[1]

He is initiator Nuclei in the Cosmos, the most important international conference series in the field of nuclear astrophysics taking place for the tenth time in the year 2008 at Michigan State University, U.S.A.^[2]

He is especially engaged in popularisation of scientific contents including the new media. He developed web-based learning and information systems and co-ordinates educational projects funded by the European Commission like Cinema and Science.^[3] He is also engaged in the creation and presentation of popular science with the Science Busters in the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna and as a weekly radio column and podcast in the Austrian youth radio station FM4.^[4] Also he produces with the Science Busters scientific video clips.^[4]

He is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation and the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP), the German-speaking branch of the worldwide skeptical movement. Furthermore, he was president of the "Gesellschaft für Kritisches Denken" (the Austrian branch of the GWUP), and of the Austrian "Zentralrat für Konfessionsfreie" (National Council of Non-confessionals. Presently he is the president of the secularist initiative "Religion ist Privatsache" (Religion is private matter).

References

Selected publications

• Kann das alles Zufall sein - Geheimnisvolles Universum?, Ecowin-Verlag, Salzburg, 2008, ISBN 978-3-902404-54-1
• H. Oberhummer: Urknall und Sternenstaub - Der Kosmos aus naturwissenschaftlicher Sicht In Die Idee vom Anfang, Ritter Verlag, Klagenfurt, Wién, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89846-494-9
• H. Oberhummer: Maßarbeit oder Zufall - sind wir nicht anderes als Sternenstaub? In Der etwas andere Blick auf die Schöpfung, HAAG + HERRCHEN, Frankfurt in Main, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89846-494-9
• H. Oberhummer (Editor): Nuclei in the Cosmos, Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, 1991, ISBN 0-387-54198-5
• H. Oberhummer, A. Patkos, T. Rauscher: Origin of the Chemical Elements. In: Handbook of Nuclear Chemistry, Vol. 2, Kap. 1, Kluwer, 2003, ISBN 1-4020-1305-1
• H. Oberhummer, A. Csótó, H. Schlattl: Stellar production rates of carbon and its abundance in the Universe, Science 289, 2000, 88
• H. Oberhummer: Kerne und Sterne: Einführung in die Nukleare Astrophysik. In German. Barth, Leipzig, Berlin, Heidelberg 1993, ISBN 3-335-00319-5

External links

• Articles of Heinz Oberhummer in arxiv.org
• Kann das alles Zufall sein? - Geheimnisvolles Universum, Ecowin-Verlag, 2008; Award for "Best Popular Science Book in Austria 2009"
• Science Busters
• Cinema and Science (CISCI)
• Neue Erkenntnisse zur Entstehung der Grundlagen für Leben